Back to Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park is ablaze. There are at least three large forest fires burning in the park right now. One of the fires is 90% contained according to a parks worker that I ran into on Saturday. A large fire near Yellowstone Lake burst to life a few days ago and in the words of a fire specialist in Wyoming, "it is 0% contained", at least that was the word on the street this morning at 8:00am.

Even with the fires looming, a group of five of us headed for the park Saturday to hike into the backcountry for a night. The central section of the park is far enough from the fire that it was safe to hike and camp, however I did wake up to smells of smoke, and views of a thick haze that blocked the southern horizon.

Saturday night, one of the members of our party suggested that we get up before dawn and hike to the summit of Observation Peak for the sunrise. We all agreed to do it, some of us less enthusiastically than others, setting our alarms for 3:30am. I have to admit I was tardy, crawling out of my sleeping bag at 4 am. It didn't take me long to realize that myself and my tent partner were the only ones getting up. The predawn hike wasn't even our idea! We grabbed a bite to eat in the pitch black morning, saw a few shooting stars, and inquired with our snoozing adventurers whether they were going to get up. They promptly informed us that it was too late to see the sunrise from the top of the peak since it was a three mile hike, and were back to snoring in no time. Mike and I looked at each other, irritated at the situation, crawled back into our sleeping bags and finished our night's sleep. Observation Peak will still be there when the sun rises, I suppose. I wish we would have thought of that before I stuck my contacts in at 4 am!

Observation Peak @ 11 am, instead of 5:30 am

Remnants of an Elk near Cascade Lake

Vanity Plates

This blog might offend a certain sector of people, but I'm going to "go there" anyway. Vanity plates irk me. They always have. I don't know if it is Montana, or maybe nationally they are becoming more popular, but I've been seeing hordes of vanity plates with ridiculous little quips on them. A few I've spotted recently:

• TEDS LDY
• SHE FANG
• BACKOFF

The "BACKOFF" plate was on a burgundy, four door Ford Focus with a woman driving who appeared to be in her late fifties or early sixties. Really, Lady?

I just don't get it.

Me and Jimmy

It hasn't taken long for me to realize that my vehicle is aging right along side of me. Since the Jimmy I drive has only had me as it's owner, I've been witness to all of its successes and failures. Definitely more successes than failures in the last eight years, but I fear the next eight years might not be so kind to the Jimmy.

Somehow the miles keep adding up. I looked down at the odometer the other day and was shocked to see that Jimmy and I had gone over 107,000 miles together. Now honestly, I don't know why I was shocked, because I've been watching the miles tick by fairly quickly out here in the vast state of Montana. Just because the speed limit is above 70 mph doesn't mean the miles are disappearing. Though admittedly, that is what it feels like at times.

In the midst of driving home from one of my hitches (extended camping trips with the MCC) the other day, my rearview mirror detaches from my windshield, hits the dash, and lies there lifeless like it never had a service that it provided me for the past eight years. I haven't been able to revive my rearview mirror yet, therefore my side mirrors are getting quite the workout. I'm just hoping they don't feel overworked and decide to jump ship!

I guess it has been a couple years now, but I distinctly remember the moment when the cover on the sunvisor mirror decided it didn't need to be connected to the mirror anymore. That resulted in a bruise on the bridge of my nose when it came sliding down the visor like a luge on an icy hill straight into my face! And every so often, I forget that it is not attached, and that I've only set it on top of my mirror to keep the little light from burning out, and the mirror cover ambushes me again at the same moment that the sun is searing my eyeballs, and all I want is a little repreive from the deadly glare, but instead I'm left with a smarting wound on my face.

I've had to replace the brakes on the Jimmy twice, fix the bearings in the left front tire twice, replace two flats, replace the bushing around the pin in the door hinge, and do the regular maintenance type upkeeps in the past eight years. And I've honestly counted myself lucky that I haven't had any major work that needed to be done to the Jimmy. But i'm beginning to have this foreboding feeling that this is only the beginning. I've developed a supersensitivity to any strange noises that I hear as I am enroute. And those strange noises are popping up at every increasing intervals.

To my loyal but aging vehicle, this haiku is for you:

Hang in there Jimmy.
I may need another eight years,
of service from you.

Rain

It has been over 100 degrees for three weeks straight. No rain in sight, in fact, no clouds for a bit of reprieve from the sun, even. Been wishing and praying for rain, especially after hearing a frightening statistic about wildfires this week.

Over 1400 fires burning in the northwest right now.

Each day the risk increases exponentially. So when the thunderheads rolled in over the Yellowstone River two days ago while we were out on a river clean-up project, I was looking forward to the forthecoming storm. It rained for a few hours and blew on past. The tempterature dropped twenty degrees, and we could feel a breeze. What a blessing. And today when I woke up, I awoke to a spattering of rain drops falling through the mesh upper of my tent. I had left the rain fly off to enjoy the stars. It feels good to enjoy the rain. More please!

Rockin' It

One of my youth crew leaders, Noah, scaling the rimrocks north of Billings. We took his youth crew rock climbing on Monday. Unfortunately it was 100 degrees out and half of the crew were not interested in stepping out of the shade to scald hands and feet on the rockface. The route that Noah is climbing is called "Welcome to Billings". I tried it and got about halfway up before my muscles told me I was to go no further. This route is for the super strong, I guess. The trick is wedging both hands in the crack, pulling as hard as you can away from the wall as if you are trying to open the crack, and walking your feet up the wall. Right....

An Earnest Statement - made by a four year old

As Maddie and I walked along a boardwalk over the hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, I began explaining to her why the earth and water were so colorful there. My explanation, of course, contained some scientific terms like, microorganism and acidic. And as she was asking me some clarifying questions about the afore mentioned, she slipped in this statement in a very serious voice.

"Leslie, I didn't know you knowed so much."

I had to stop and laugh a bit at that priceless moment. I must normally come off quite ignorant in Maddie's company. I'll have to work on that.

The Grand Tetons...A Solo Trip

After Emily, Franz, and the girls drove south out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Saturday morning, I drove north to the Tetons and backpacked into a campsite about eight miles in. My campsite was situated behind the Grand Teton and in a canyon called Cascade Canyon. I saw plenty of day hikers, lots of wildlife, a handful of raging waterfalls, but not too many backpackers as I hiked to my campsite.


During the night, of which I slept little, I was disturbed at various times by a marten that was very interested in the items I had under the vestibule of my tent. Each time I heard it moving very close to my body, with only a thin nylon barrier separating us, my heart skipped a beat, or two. An elk wandered into my campsite, as well, scaring me once again. I knew I shouldn't have read Night of the Grizzlies, before traveling into the backcountry. Morning came none too soon and I was packed up and hiking by 7 am.
Saturday as I hiked into my campsite, I passed four moose munching on an afternoon snack. I was very excited to encounter four at once. If you look closely at the picture you can see one moose feeding and then another to it's left lying in the grass. All you can see are the antlers and part of it's head.


In 2002, Megan and I had backpacked in the Tetons and spent some time at Jenny Lake. It was fun to come back and take looksy at the lake again.

Visitors from Afar

Emily, Franz, Madeline, and Katie made the cross country trip from Illinois to Montana. Arriving safely, and amazingly sane in Billings last Thursday evening. I've never heard of a driving route from Chicago to Phoenix, by way of Montana, but hey, anything goes when you're pushing 100mph in a slick black mercedes, I guess! I was thrilled that they visited, and excited to tour Yellowstone National park with them and stay in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday night before they split for the last leg of their long journey home.

Madeline and Franz help me eat some sprouts from the top of my sandwhich. Katie tried them and spit them out in disgust. However, upon seeing Maddie enjoying them so much, she tried them again and aparently liked them. Strange. Emily refused the refreshing crunch of sprouts, relaying tales of the youthful days when mom grew her own and put them on our sandwhiches and salads.

Glacier National Park

After spending six days in the Little Belts, I drove up to Glacier National Park to meet my college buddy, Amber, and her husband Dan and their friend Dan. We spent four nights in the backcountry of Glacier, viewing the spectacular vistas, climbing over mountain passes, cooling off in the frigid glacial lakes, fording rivers and being ever watchful for Grizzly and Black Bears. Alas we saw no Griz, but we did spot a Black Bear from across a creek.

Working in the Little Belt Mountains

Since the Senior Youth Crew Leader from Great Falls left her position a month ago, I was asked to visit her youth crews at some point in the season. I had been looking forward to visiting the Expedition crew from Great Falls because they are the older kids (16-18) and their session is all backcountry work for four weeks, in which they don't go home at all. The youth are from all over the state of Montana, instead of a specific region. And since all of their work is backcountry, they usually get packed into a campsite with pack horses and mules. June 24th, I headed up to the Little Belt Mountains to work on Off Highway Vehicle trails. I spent a week with the Expedition crew living in the mountains, working on trails, laughing around the campfire, and dodging hale stones.